minivan, part 2

well, its a done deal. we bought a minivan last night, a toyota sienna. i was right-minivans are cool! that thing has all kinds of storage space. i mean, everywhere you can have storage space, you've got it. it has power sliding doors on both sides. rebekah found the button for those pretty quick (actually, i showed it to her, not realizing the monster i was about to create). she played with that thing for about 5 minutes before we stopped her. its got seating for 8, so when the siblings come to visit in the spring, we can throw everyone in one vehicle to go somewhere. the back 3 seats fold down into the floor to create more room, and the 3 middle seats fold down into tables. the steering wheel has radio controls on it. i've never had that, but its really neat. the only downside is that the toyota people are apparantly colorblind. they call it beige, but its really fsu gold. other than that little typo, we love it. if i'd known how neat they were, i would have embraced growing up a long time ago. oh well, better late than never.

merry christmas

merry christmas everyone! hope you have all had a wonderful holiday. we certainly have. this was the first christmas that rebekah really kind of knew what was going on.

jolynn and rebekah made sugar cookies last night. rebekah especially liked using the cookie cutters, and she made a santa plate at school, so we asked her if she wanted to leave some cookies out for santa. she didn't want to at first, but we talked her into it.

the problem was that she didn't really want him coming to her house. she was afraid that he was going to get her. after we explained that he would bring her presents, she decided it would be okay if he came over.

fortunately for us, we only had one present to assemble-the art easel from aunt sierra. thankfully, it was only a couple of pieces that had to be put together. last year we were up half the night with her kitchen set.

rebekah actually slept until about 8:30. its not amazing because it was christmas, because she still doesn't fully get that yet. its just that she never wants to sleep in when we're able to (which isn't that often). she was very excited to see her easel (couldn't find enough paper to wrap it) and the refrigerator that santa brought her.

then we got into opening the other presents. she's getting better at it, but she still needs some help. sometimes she has a hard time pulling the paper off, and sometimes she just gets distracted.

she got lots of really neat presents this year: a tinkerbell dress from granni & poppi watson, some books and a tea set from granni & poppi kane, three great big tonka trucks from poppop & grandma carol. she got 5 classic cartoon dvd's from aunt lisa & uncle ronnie, the easel from aunt sierra, and a customized step stool from aunt quinn (no more being held up to wash hers hands, and no more boost onto the big potty).

she also got a barbie, some art supplies, and a ball and bat from her parents. (we're trying to make sure she's well-rounded). she's already put a lot of her gifts to use. she especially had fun painting.

merry christmas and God bless!

minivan

it's official. we're growing up (really it's just getting old, but growing up sounds a little less menacing). we've decided to buy a minivan. when i traded in the jeep for a saturn sedan before we had rebekah, i could at least tell myself that it was kinda cool, maybe. it was black, and when i put the bike rack on it, it didn't look quite so old. but there's no sugarcoating a minivan-we're just plain getting old. it'll make trips to virginia and vacations a lot more comfortable, though. and besides, when cirie terese gets here, we'll need the extra room. ok, so there is no cirie terese just yet (probably), but i like to be optimistic. we're trying, and hopefully it'll be as easy as last time (and hopefully with as glorious a result as last time). pray for us. and remember, minivans ARE cool!

marathon training

still in training for the tallahassee marathon in february. there have been a few curves thrown my way, with rebekah getting sick a couple of times and trying to recover from a messed up knee (don't run a 5k, or anything else for that matter, in crocs). i've only missed one workout, but i've had to rearrange workouts a couple of times, sometimes putting two longs runs too close together. not good. did a 14-mile run today. not bad, but i have this great stuff called body glide that helps prevent chafing when you run. thing is, you have to actually apply it BEFORE you run, or it doesn't do much good. hopefully i'll be able to run again by friday, but right now it hurts to walk. other than that, training is pretty much right on schedule.

breakfast with santa (kinda)

we took rebekah to trish ann's tea room in haddock last weekend for breakfast with santa with josh, aimee, and grayson. the breakfast was delicious, but rebekah still isn't too sure about this santa guy. last year she screamed her head off when she sat in his lap, and that was the only picture we got. this year was a little better. we pass by lots of different santas in the storefront windows downtown when we go to school each morning. she recognizes who santa is and even said that she likes santa, but then, out of nowhere, she told me one morning that she wasn't going to sit in his lap. apparantly she meant it because she still wasn't too keen on the jolly old elf. she would sit on the arm of the chair ok, and in his lap if jolynn or i held on to her, but that was about it. jolynn even tried to tickle santa and then get rebekah to do the same, but she just grabbed my hand and said, "daddy do it." oh well, maybe next year.